Book Review
The Great Chimera by M. Karagatsis
The Book That Made Me Go to the Island of Syros
Have you ever read a book that captivates you, makes you want to travel and you don’t find peace until you get to those fairytale places? Me too.
The Great Chimera by M. Karagatsis is the book that made me go to the island of Syros, in the footsteps of the protagonists of the Piskopio mansion.
M. Karagatsis (1908 -1960) was the pseudonym of the great modern Greek novelist, journalist, critic and playwright Dimitris Rodopoulos. He was born in Athens and studied law in France.
The letter “M.” comes from Mitia, the diminutive of Dimitrios. The word “Karagatsis” comes from the tree “karagatsi” (a species of elm) in the shade of which he wrote. He was characterized primarily as a prose writer of the illusory reality of persons and situations.
Bold, sensual, with a rich imagination and who created a unique narrative style, he established himself in modern Greek literature. His first three novels (Colonel Liapkin, The Great Chimera, and Junkerman) make up a trilogy called “Acclimatization under Apollo” that has foreign protagonists living in Greece.
Karagatsis’ novel centers around two literary themes — love and death. The Great Chimera is a detailed account of the inner life of the heroine and speaks of the kind of love that can cause chaos and disaster. It is thus, in a sense, a modern Greek tragedy.
The Great Chimera by M. Karagatsis. The book that made me go to the island of Syros.
Marina is a young French woman, blonde, extremely beautiful, but terribly lonely. Men see her strictly as a sexual object, which disgusts her to the core, and she doesn’t really have a girlfriend. He hardly knows his father with whom he cannot establish any kind of relationship.
Her father! He came only once a year and stayed there only 20 days. He was an officer and posted to the legion in Africa. He was arriving without warning. He looked at her mother with his cold gray eyes and kissed his daughter. Then he was silent. For 15 days, he was silent. He sat in a corner and gazed out into the vastness, stroking his long blond whiskers. His sunburned and hardened face betrayed an icy indifference.
She sat for hours and never tired of looking at him. His uniform is crimson with blue and silver threads. The beautiful head, wrinkled skin and harsh expression. Why can’t dad be like all other dads? Why doesn’t he take me in his arms to caress me, kiss me, talk to me gently? Why is it that when I approach him, thirsty for love, he gives me a forced smile and then turns his eyes away?
M. Karagatsis — The Great Chimera
After her father’s death, her relationship with her mother becomes increasingly strained. In order to ensure her livelihood and education, the woman chooses the most convenient way, that of selling her body.
Passionate about all things Hellenistic and ancient Greece, Marina devotes herself to her studies and surprises her teachers with both her intelligence and cynical remarks.
Medea had become my passion. Was the woman who killed her children out of erotic jealousy a psychopath? That was the question that was bothering me. No, she wasn’t a psychopath. If it had been, it would not have inspired Euripides, who did not seek morbid themes for his tragedies. Medea is an ordinary being, whose blind love clouds her judgment, as it does with any normal human. By a contrary reasoning: the one who is not able to experience such a passion is not, from the physiological point of view, a whole man.
M. Karagatsis — The Great Chimera
Iannis is a young Greek captain from the island of Syros and an early ship owner. Despite the fact that his mother does not want his sons to take the path of the sea, after two years of the Polytechnic, Iannis gives up his studies and follows his dream.
With his and his brother’s share of the inheritance from the father, and with a loan, he buys a ship with which he travels the seas and oceans of the world.
The meeting of the two takes place in the port of Rouen, shortly after Marina loses her mother.
While walking on the shore, the young woman notices the strange name of the vessel, written in Greek letters “XIMAIPA”. Only when he sees the transcription in Latin characters does he realize that he has the ship “HIMERA” in front of him.
The attempt to approach Iannis in Homer’s language fails miserably. The man doesn’t understand one iota and asks her to write down what he said. Marina does not understand how a Greek does not understand her mother tongue until she learns that after using ancient Greek, long gone, her Erasmic pronunciation has nothing to do with the language spoken by the Greeks.
While Iannis wants to settle down at home and start a family, Marina wants to travel and see the world. The substantial and unsuspected inheritance left by Marina’s mother and the Greek’s entrepreneurial spirit fulfill their wishes.
They marry with great pomp at the church of St. Nicholas the Rich in Syra and settle at the Reizeis family mansion in Piskopio. Marina is fascinated by the beauty of the Cyclades islands and decides to immerse herself in Greek culture as much as possible in order to become an authentic Greek herself.
Anna Reizis, a refugee from the island of Kasos, does not love her daughter-in-law but tolerates her for the sake of her eldest son. Especially as the young woman’s inheritance turns into a new ship, and Iannis gives up the sea in favor of office work at their small naval enterprise.
“HIMERA” and “MARINA”, the two ships of the family, ensure the luxurious life, travels, parties, and studies of the eldest Minas who dedicates himself to legal sciences. And Annoulia’s birth completes the happiness that reigns in the Piskopio mansion.
The Great Chimera is a book about turmoil, devotion, and illusions
The financial crisis of 1929–1930 did not escape the Reizis family either. In order not to reduce the family’s income, Iannis decides that “MARINA” will sail without insurance. And as misfortune never comes alone, the elements split the ship and send the entire crew to their deaths.
- Madam daughter-in-law! The old woman told him with the seriousness that the situation required.
- What is it, mother?
– Go and put on a black dress. Put the black scarf on your head. It’s time to go.
- Where are we going? Where?
With a dry, willing finger, the captain of Kasos pointed down at the city.
- God didn’t just take the ship to us. But down in Syra, 32 Kasiot families lost their men. Single mothers, widowed women, orphaned children remained. Don’t forget, lady-in-law, that their men died toiling for us. It is our duty to be with them, in this sad circumstance…
M. Karagatsis — The Great Chimera
To avoid bankruptcy, Iannis boards the HIMERA again for at least two years. For her part, Marina makes her forays into Syra rare and gives up her social life.
Life in the Piskopio manor is slow and monotonous. The Reizis family no longer visits and receives very rarely. Marina finds herself trapped between her love and devotion for Iannis and her repressed eroticism.
One moment of wandering and Marina turns from a faithful wife and devoted mother into a monster. What will be her destiny? Will she be condemned by the moral courts or will she be forgiven?
Tell me in a comment.
